Looking Left or Looking Right? Effects of Newspaper Layout on the Perception of Political News

• In Event: Researching Cognition, Perception, and Effects in Visual Communication

Abstract

Clothes can make the man – and design can make the media. A two-factor online experiment with n = 533 participants investigated how newspaper articles’ layout style and text slant affect the perception of a newspapers’ political orientation on the left-right axis. The layout versions were based on a prior analysis of correlations between design and political direction of German quality newspapers. Results provide evidence for the existence of political layout effects: under certain conditions, not only text slant but also layout style can have considerable influence on how people perceive the political position of newspapers. Political layout effects were reinforced by high knowledge of quality newspapers and were diminished by self-reported attention/affinity to design. They emerged largely independent of other individual factors like political orientation, newspaper usage and age. Consequently, graphic design should be considered as capable of shaping or even biasing recipients’ perception of political media messages.

Authors

• Johanna Keppeler, LMU Munich

• Benjamin Kramer, LMU Munich

• Philipp Müller, Johannes Gutenberg U